Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Note: While this articles is written about non-profits in South Carolina, SCV Camps everywehere must file to keep their non-profit status. Contact SCV headquarters if your camp is unsure on what is required and how to file.

IRS Deadline Upcoming

Hundreds of small charities and nonprofit organizations in the Upstate could be faced with losing their tax-exempt status because they've neglected to file annually with the Internal Revenue Service — putting tax-deductible donations in jeopardy.

IRS records show it has a list of small nonprofits, which includes those who can file the Form 990-N or 990-EZ, that haven't filed annually for the past three years. After three years of non-filing, the organizations automatically lose their tax-exempt status. The IRS, however, is giving a one-time amnesty until Oct. 15 for them to come into compliance.

The potential impact is far more sweeping than the organizations themselves losing their tax-exempt status. It could affect people making donations as of Oct. 15 to the organizations and claiming them as tax deductions, raising the risk of having those contributions disallowed.

In general, an organization can file a Form 990-N if its annual gross receipts are less than $25,000. If its annual gross receipts are less than $100,000 but more than $25,000, a nonprofit can file a Form 990-EZ.

The South Carolina list includes thousands of organizations with their last-known addresses while the Upstate has hundreds of charities listed. The organizations range from Shrine Temples to library funds to American Legion posts to community betterment organizations.

“I was surprised at how extensive the list is,” said Stephen Kirkland, a certified public accountant with Columbia-based Kirkland, Thomas, Watson & Dyches. “It is a big deal for those still in existence,” said Colleen Bozard, spokeswoman with the South Carolina Association of Nonprofit Organizations, a membership organization that provides support and services to the nonprofit sector. In addition to losing the ability for donors to receive tax exemptions on donations, the organizations can lose eligibility for government and community grants.If they lose it, she said, “they lose a lot.”

Monday, August 30, 2010

The problem with Charles Bryan's Op/Ed column, "Yes, Slavery Caused the Civil War," is that nearly every point he raises to make his argument against the short-lived Southern Republic could also be made directly against the United States, its Constitution, and the Founding Fathers. For example, the statement that "the Confederacy was a nation based on laws and constitutional authority protecting slavery and the right of its citizens to own other human beings." The implication is that the United States and its Constitution were not. But this is false.

It may be useful to point out a few uncomfortable realities:

•The United States Constitution clearly provided in the second section of Article IV for the return of fugitive slaves to their masters.

•The United States Constitution in the second section of Article I clearly provided that three-fifths of all other persons (meaning slaves) were to be counted for the purposes of representation in the U.S. House.

•The United States Constitution, in fact, extended the slave trade a full decade until 1808. This was a rejection of the proposal by George Mason, a slaveholder, and other Virginians, for an immediate end to this inhumane practice. The extension benefited New England -- the center of American slave trading.

The U.S. Constitution was designed chiefly to protect liberty and property, including slaves. The Framers knew that property rights were indispensable to liberty and that for the time being bonded labor was a unique species of property. Such statesmen as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Patrick Henry, George Mason, John Marshall, and a host of others, were slaveholders who also opposed slavery. Yet they had to deal with the day-to-day reality of an inherited institution, while striving to make it as humane as possible and looking forward to its final abolition by peaceful and orderly means. This is not a contradiction, but rather a paradox.

In 1831, Virginia attempted to enact a bill for gradual emancipation of the slaves --it lost by one vote in the General Assembly. Virginia, all counted, made a total of 23 attempts to legislate the freeing of the slaves and the abolition of the slave trade prior to 1861.

The United States Congress, in a resolution unanimously approved by both houses on July 23, 1861, declared: "The war is waged by the Government of the United States, not in the spirit of conquest or subjugation, nor for the purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or institutions of the states, but to defend and protect the Union." There is not a word about abolishing slavery.

President Abraham Lincoln said in his first Inaugural Address: "I have no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."

In 1861, Lincoln supported passage of the Corwin Amendment to the Constitution, which would have formally and explicitly enshrined slavery in the U.S. Constitution by prohibiting the government from ever interfering with Southern slavery. This amendment passed the Senate and the House just days before Lincoln was inaugurated (but the advent of war prevented its ratification by the states). In his first Inaugural Address he said he believed slavery was constitutional and then, alluding to the Corwin Amendment, said: "I have no objection to it [slavery protection] being made express irrevocable" in the Constitution. This was by far the strongest defense of slavery ever made by an American politician.

Not one single slave in any non-seceding Union slave state (Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, Kentucky, and the District of Columbia) was freed by Lincoln's famous 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. It had no effect on any Southern state, as it obviously could not be enforced there. Lincoln himself said (in a widely distributed communication, Aug. 22, 1862, to New York newspaper editor Horace Greeley): "If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves I would do it."

Arguments that slavery caused the war and that the South was the culprit are already bearing fruit in the City of Richmond. The city's commission on the sesquicentennial, The Future of Richmond's Past, is already showing a distorted emphasis on slavery versus the heroism, suffering, and sacrifice of the soldiers whose leaders' statues grace Monument Avenue. This approach seems more calculated to drive visitors away than to attract them to the capital city of the Confederacy.

Virginia's secession convention stood firmly pro-Union until the April 12, 1861, firing on Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call of troops from Virginia to help bring the seceding states back into the Union. Slavery played no role in Virginia's decision and Virginia left the Union only upon Lincoln's call up to invade the lower South.

Slavery began in Virginia in 1619, not 1861. It is an injustice to pile the sins of 250 years of the "peculiar institution" on the brave men who went forth against the invaders between 1861 and 1865. As we commemorate their heroism and sacrifice, we do not forget the peculiar institution, but at the same time we must not let political correctness corrupt our judgment and our historical understanding. As noted historian James McPherson wrote in What They Fought For, 1861-1865, the vast majority of Southern soldiers believed they were fighting to defend their state, their homes, and their families -- not slavery.

GETTYSBURG, Pa. – The town where the Civil War's tide-turning battle was waged is fighting dissension in its own ranks, with even hard-core preservationists split over a proposed casino that would rise near the historic battlefield and be named for the line that divided North and South.

It's the second time in five years that Gettysburg has fought over a plan to build a casino. This time it's the Mason Dixon Resort & Casino, proposed on a hotel and conference center site within a mile of the southern boundary of Gettysburg National Military Park.

"No Casino" and "Pro Casino" signs pepper shop windows in the quaint streets of Gettysburg, where more than a million tourists shop, dine or sleep each year.

Supporters say the casino plan doesn't tread on hallowed ground and will bring jobs, more tourists and tax relief to the area. But the potential that a casino will cheapen the wholesome reputation that draws tourists to Gettysburg, where 160,000 Union and Confederate soldiers fought a three-day battle in the summer of 1863, is what worries many.

"It seems like a lot of people, they just want more business, they want more money to flow in the community at any cost, and that's really upsetting," said Barbara Schultz, a Gettysburg native and casino opponent who owns a bed and breakfast and art gallery.

Casino principals, supporters and opponents will speak at a public meeting Tuesday with state regulators who are considering the license application to build the casino.

The developer, David LeVan, is a noted local philanthropist and former Conrail Inc. chairman who lives across the street from the park's museum and visitors center. He has helped renovate the town's historic Majestic theater and donated family land to help preservation efforts.

He declined to comment Tuesday through a spokesman, David La Torre, who pointed out that the area around the nearly 6,000-acre park is already saturated with hotels, fast-food restaurants and big-box stores.

"You've got to really keep it in its proper context," La Torre said. "You've got to realize how big this place is. It's humongous, and people are fighting us and we're not even located on it."

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board rejected LeVan's first plan in 2006 amid an outcry that gambling would sully the character of the battlefield where Union soldiers stopped the Confederate advance.

LeVan and supporters contend the new casino plan is much smaller than the first — they are seeking a license that allows up to 600 slot machines and 50 table games — and would pump new life into a struggling hotel and conference center.

The county is supporting the plan in exchange for a $1 million annual contribution to its treasury. A local group, the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association, endorses the plan, saying the potential to strengthen the local economy could boost preservation efforts. Park officials say they have determined that the casino does not directly affect park resources.

Still, the Civil War Preservation Trust put the Gettysburg National Military Park on its endangered list because of the casino plan.

In April, Ronald Maxwell, who made the epic 1993 movie "Gettysburg," came to town to deliver an impassioned speech to casino opponents.

The French would not allow a casino to be built on famous battlefields along the Somme River or in the Ardennes, and the Polish would not allow a casino a half-mile of the site of the Katyn massacre or the Auschwitz concentration camp, he said.

"Why stop at Gettysburg? Maybe we should build some casinos at the site of the World Trade Center," he said. "That would create some jobs right? Heck, that would help the tax base, right?"

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Compatriots!It is time to mark your calender for the SCV Sesquicentennial Event to be held in Montgomery, AL on Saturday February 19, 2011. This event will feature a parade up Dexter Avenue to the Alabama State Capitol Building, a reenactment of the swearing in of President Jefferson Davis and a selection of speakers at the Capitol Building. Just like was done for the Flag Rally in 2000 in Columbia, South Carolina and for the Hunley Funeral in Charleston in 2004 - it is IMPERATIVE that this event be well attended. We must show the world that we will not permit the History and Heritage of the Confederacy to be forgotten and unobserved during the Sesquicentennial.It is up to us to see that this history is remembered and portrayed in the right way so start planning your vist to Montgomery - organize vans and buses - so we can show the world we remember our Confederate Heroes.

Basic information: Host Hotel:Embassy Suites - downtown Montgomery, AL. The SCV has a block of rooms reserved for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Single and doubles $116.00 per night, triple $126.00, and quads for $136.00 per night. The SCV reservation code will be availabe and posted early next week. (Note: If you end up staying at a different hotel, The Renaissance has shown itself to Confederate non-friendly)

Vendors : Friday, February 18th, 2011 and Saturday the 19th vendors will be setup in the hotel.

Reception: Friday evening the Alabma Divsion will have a meet and greet with entertainment from 7pm to 9pm at the host hotel.

Saturday Events:Confederate Parade on Dexter Avenue - 12 Noon - details to be announced shortly. Cannons are also need for a firing of a salute on the grounds of the State Capitol. Swearing in of President Jefferson Davis will take place after the parade on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol Building. Re-enactment of the raising of the first Confederate Flag

Saturday evening a banquet will be held with a guest speaker. Cost: $75.00 per couple or $50.00 for an individual.

More details soon - look for posts to the Telegraph and check http://www.confederate150.com/2011.html for event details.

Katrina uncovers a little history in MississippiBy April Williams, CNNAugust 28, 2010

Beauvoir, in Biloxi, Mississippi, was the home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis Hurricane Katrina tore up the home's exterior and damaged historical paintings and furniture During the restoration process, workers learned new info about how the house was built

It cost $4 million to restore the home -- You can't miss Beauvoir as you drive along scenic U.S. Highway 90 through Biloxi, Mississippi. Its grand staircase, with the railings scrolling outward, welcomes you like open arms.

The front porch wraps around the entire front of the home, supported by regal white pillars, common during the antebellum period.

It's the kind of front porch where you can envision someone sitting in a rocking chair with a glass of iced tea, as the breeze from the beach offers the only respite from a humid August afternoon.

When Hurricane Katrina devastated Mississippi's coastal areas, the storm tore up the home. But it also peeled back a little slice of history about Beauvoir that might never have been known otherwise.

Beauvoir was the last home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Some call Davis a forgotten hero of American history. He was a graduate of West Point, a hero in the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican-American War, and a senator from Mississippi.

When Davis served in Washington, he helped get the Smithsonian Institution up and running after the founder, James Smithson, died.

In the months before the Civil War, Davis resigned from the Senate and was selected as president of the Confederacy.

When the war ended, he was charged with treason and, although he was never tried or convicted, he lost the right to run for public office.

He later settled in Biloxi, and purchased Beauvoir from a family friend for $5,500, although the owner died shortly after Davis made the first payment. It was his last home.

Video: The slow recovery from Katrina

Video: Katrina: Moments before the storm

Five years ago, Katrina ripped the front porch completely off, taking part of the slate roof with it, and knocking down several support columns. Windows were blown out, and water flooded the interior. Furniture and pictures dating to the 1800s were waterlogged.

Winterthur Museum, out of Delaware, voluntarily restored the furniture and paintings. A paint historian surveyed the interior of the home after Katrina to ensure restoration was historically accurate.

This was a tedious project, involving Q-tips, paint remover, and a microscope. But the effort paid off, and with a bonus -- because things were discovered about the home that might never have been revealed if Katrina hadn't ravaged South Mississippi.

Then and now photos of Katrina's devastation

The historian learned the white doors were originally painted a faux oak color. The director of Beauvoir, Rick Forte, explained that the doors were too large to be made from real oak, a heavy wood.

So the original owner opted for cypress and had the doors finished in "the king of wood" oak finish, as Forte described it.

The white mantles over the fireplaces in the home were originally painted a faux marble. The historian also discovered fresco art on the ceiling of the reception hall, the front parlor and the library.

The most revealing discovery was the architecture.

Beauvoir was built in the mid-1800s by James Brown. "We always wondered whether he was his own architect or if he hired one from New Orleans," said Forte.

It turns out Brown was the architect, and in some ways, not a very good one. Many mistakes had to be repaired, in addition to the restoration work after the hurricane.

"It cost $4 million to restore the Beauvoir house, but it is a priceless house," according to Forte.

Today, Beauvoir is anchored to the ground with a foundation of concrete and rebar. The last national historic landmark house on the Mississippi Gulf Coast is fully restored to its original charm and splendor.

"It looks as good today as the day they finished it in 1852," Forte boasts.

As many as 4,000 people toured the home for its grand reopening, but tourists are sparse now, thanks to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But Forte counts his blessings as far as the home's survival of Katrina.

"It was like going from hell to heaven, to where we are now," he said.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- North Carolina's claim that it lost the most men during the Civil War is getting a recount from a state historian who doubts the accuracy of the accepted, 144-year-old estimate.

"The time has come to get it right," said Josh Howard, a research historian with the Office of Archives and History in Raleigh. "Nobody has gone through man by man looking for the deaths."

Howard is reviewing the military records of every Tar Heel who served in the 1861-65 conflict, as the state prepares to mark its sesquicentennial, The News & Record of Greensboro reported Monday.

Since shortly after the war ended, North Carolina has boasted that it sacrificed more men to the Confederate cause than any other state, at 40,275. That's more than twice the death toll of South Carolina, where the war's first shots were fired. It suffered the second-highest toll at 17,682.

"This has sort of been the North Carolina badge of honor," says Keith Hardison, director of the Division of State Historic Sites and Properties. It was "held out as gospel, and it may be gospel. If it is, we need to have the figures to back it up. If it is not, we need to correct it."

Since 1866, the number of Civil War deaths has been attributed to a federal study by Gen. James B. Fry, the U.S. provost marshal general. Fry and his clerks examined Union and captured Confederate muster rolls and regimental reports to determine the toll from fighting, disease, accidents and those who died in prison.

But Fry's figures were "incorrect and misguided," Howard said, because clerks relied on incomplete records, sometimes counted the same case twice, and identified units as being from North Carolina when they were from another state. Additionally, some records were lost and some casualty reports may have been exaggerated.

"Officers did that to keep the enemy in the dark," Howard said. "Or it showed you were in the thick of the fight."

If North Carolina's numbers are wrong, then the numbers for other states are wrong as well because they all come from the same faulty sources, he said.

Howard is basing his review on a 17-volume roster of Tar Heels who served on either side of the conflict - a project that was launched in the 1960s to commemorate the war's 100-year anniversary and continues with the state history office. For units not yet collected in the series, Howard will rely on military service records in the National Archives. He expects to examine the records of more than 140,000 men.

By Friday, Howard had confirmed 29,418 North Carolina war dead.

While many died in battle for the Confederacy, most died of disease. Others died from drowning, lightning strikes, suicide, bar fights, train wrecks, riots, execution for desertion, accidental shootings, collapsing buildings, insect and snake bites, falls, or being run over by wagons.

The research also found that about 2,000 North Carolinians, black and white, died during service in the Union army. No cases of blacks who died while serving in North Carolina's Confederate ranks have been found, although some have argued that blacks did fight for the South.

Howard is getting help from members of the Garner chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which had separately started its own study.

"We are going to compare our lists. We are coming at it from two different angles," said Charles Purser, a retired Air Force master sergeant who led the veterans' group's research.

The study is unlikely to change the fact that a third of the state's men of military age died during the Civil War.

"I don't think it matters if it is 30,000 or 40,000," said Tom Belton, curator of military history and the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. "It's a significant number of North Carolinians who gave their lives for a cause they thought was worth dying for."

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Nation's largest veteran's group calls possibility of gambling on battlefield's doorstep "a disgrace"(

Washington, D.C.) – The American Legion has joined the growing ranks of those opposed to a gambling casino just ½ mile from Gettysburg National Military Park. In a statement released yesterday, American Legion National Commander Clarence E. Hill described the casino proposal as “a disgrace.” Civil War Preservation Trust president James Lighthizer issued the following statement in support of the American Legion’s powerful message:

“On behalf of the Civil War Preservation Trust and its thousands of members, I applaud the strong statement issued yesterday by the American Legion. The Legion’s condemnation of the proposal to construct a casino so close to our nation’s most hallowed battleground underscores the outrage many Americans feel about the plan to place slots just a few thousand feet from the scene of indescribable suffering nearly 150 years ago.

“Experiencing the heat of battle is a tie that binds all generations of America’s fighting men and women — whenever and wherever they served. The denunciation of an internationally respected veteran’s advocacy organization, such as the American Legion, lends additional credence to our long-standing belief that proposing a casino so close to this hallowed ground fundamentally conflicts with Gettysburg’s essential and indelible place in American history.”

The American Legion joins a growing list of organizations and individuals opposed to the idea of a Gettysburg casino including the Civil War Preservation Trust, National Parks Conservation Association, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Preservation Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Scranton Times-Tribune. In July, more than 275 historians — including Pulitzer Prize-winners James McPherson and Garry Wills and Emmy Award-winning documentarian Ken Burns — signed a letter to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control condemning a gambling den within musket shot of the battlefield.

Although the proposed casino site along the Emmitsburg Road lies outside the current administrative boundaries of Gettysburg National Military Park, it would be on land identified as historically sensitive by the American Battlefield Protection Program, an arm of the National Park Service. The application before the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board would retrofit an existing family-friendly hotel complex into a gambling resort with an initial 600 slot machines, in addition to table games.

The Civil War Preservation Trust encourages concerned citizens to register to speak or submit written comments for the upcoming hearing on the issue by simply visiting: www.speakforthefallen.com or www.civilwar.org/nocasino

With 55,000 members, the Civil War Preservation Trust is the largest nonprofit battlefield preservation organization in the United States. Its mission is to preserve our nation’s remaining Civil War battlefields and encourage their appreciation through education and heritage tourism. Since 1987, the organization has saved more than 29,000

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Scarlett O'Hara Costumes in Need of Repairs Ahead of 'Gone With the Wind' Exhibit

Published August 10, 2010

Two of the famous 'Gone With the Wind' costumes are in need of repair.

It's time to find out if fans of "Gone With the Wind" frankly give a damn about the fabulous dresses worn by Vivien Leigh in the multiple Oscar-winning Civil War drama.

The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin is trying to raise $30,000 to restore five of Scarlett O'Hara's now tattered gowns from the 1939 film.

The Ransom Center is planning an exhibit to mark the movie's 75th anniversary in 2014, but at the moment most of them are too fragile to go on display, according to Jill Morena, the center's collection assistant for costumes and personal effects.

"There are areas where the fabric has been worn through, fragile seams and other problems," Morena said. "These dresses have been under a lot of stress."

The Ransom Center acquired the costumes -- including O'Hara's green curtain dress, green velvet gown, burgundy ball gown, blue velvet night gown and her wedding dress -- in the mid-1980s as part of the collection of "Gone With the Wind" producer David O. Selznick. By then, they had already been through decades of traveling displays in theaters and had been on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

"Film costumes weren't meant to last," Morena said. "They are only meant to last through the duration of filming. You won't find them to be as finished as if you bought something off the rack."

The costumes are among the most famous in Hollywood history and they played a key role in one of the most popular films ever. "Gone With the Wind" won eight Acadamy Awards.

Yet the green curtain dress -- symbolic of O'Hara's determination to survive -- has loose seams and needs structural reinforcement. Others have suffered abrasion and areas where the fabric is nearly worn through.

Leigh wore the curtain dress in three scenes: the jail scene in which Scarlett asks Rhett Butler, played by Clark Gable, for financial help; as she walks through the streets of Atlanta with Mammy; and when she meets Frank Kennedy.

Talking about his costume designs for the film in William Pratt's 1977 book "Scarlett Fever," designer Walter Plunkett was modest.

"I don't think it was my best work or even the biggest thing I did," Plunkett said. "But that picture, of course, will go on forever, and that green dress, because it makes a story point, is probably the most famous costume in the history of motion pictures."

Donations will be used to restore the dresses and buy protective housing and custom mannequins for the 2014 exhibit, Morena said. The Ransom Center also hopes to send the dresses out on loan.

Fredericksburg's legal battle over the location of a memorial to Confederate dead can go to trial, a judge decided yesterday.

Circuit Judge Gordon F. Willis rejected the city's motion for summary judgment to dismiss a lawsuit by the Sons of Confederate Veterans' local camp, saying the court must decide some of the facts disputed by both sides.

The City Council wants the SCV's Matthew Fontaine Maury Camp No. 1722 to remove a granite-and-bronze memorial it erected in early 2009 to honor 51 Confederate soldiers who were buried nearby on what is now the Maury Commons condominiums.

The small monument sits on one corner of the grassy triangle at Barton and George streets that's better known as site of the much-larger Fredericksburg Area War Memorial.

Last fall, the City Council said the SCV monument must move. It enacted an ordinance declaring the triangle the exclusive site of the War Memorial, donated by the Fredericksburg Area Veterans Council, that honors local military personnel killed in World War I and later conflicts.

The Maury camp contends that state law bars the city from moving its monument, and that the SCV had city building and zoning officials' permission to put it there on municipal property. It claims that elsewhere on city land, markers and monuments to the Union's Irish Brigade and the 7th Michigan Infantry were recently permitted by the same process.

But City Attorney Kathleen Dooley argued in court yesterday that staff weren't authorized to allow the SCV memorial. Permission must come expressly from the City Council, she said.

The SCV camp obtained a building permit for the monument's base from the city zoning administrator.

Since it has that document and the memorial is built, the council cannot retroactively move or alter the monument, the group's Richmond attorney, Patrick McSweeney, told the court.

"After the fact, the city can't change the rules," McSweeney argued.

Judge Willis said he wants to hear testimony on why Roy B. Perry Jr., the SCV camp's first lieutenant commander--who obtained the building permit--believed he had the city's approval for the monument.

And as he did last spring when the case arrived in his courtroom, Willis urged the two sides to settle the issue out of court, through mediation overseen by a retired judge. In interviews afterward, Dooley and McSweeney said their clients are open to such an agreement, if they can find common ground. "If there's a will, it could be worked out," McSweeney said. "The monument could be located where everybody would be satisfied."

But the legal dispute may grow, not go away.

William E. Glover, the local attorney for the Veterans Council, said the group will file a brief asking the court to let it be a party to the case, on the city's side.

The City Council has retained Fredericksburg trial lawyer Jennifer Lee Parrish to assist Dooley in the case.

And while McSweeney and Dooley declined to describe their clients' bargaining positions for a potential deal, it's not clear that the city and the SCV camp are even on the same page.

Ironically, it was the City Council which--in 1861--approved burial of Confederate troops from seven states at what later became the home of Maury School.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – A decade after the raising of the Confederate submarine Hunley off the South Carolina coast, the cause of the sinking of the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship remains a mystery. But scientists are edging closer.On Friday, scientists announced one of the final steps that should help explain what happened after the hand-cranked sub and its eight-man crew rammed a spar with a powder charge into the Union blockade ship Housatonic off Charleston in February, 1864.

Early next year the 23-ton sub will be delicately rotated to an upright position, exposing sections of hull not examined in almost 150 years.When the Hunley sank, it was buried in sand listing 45 degrees to starboard. It was kept that way as slings were put beneath it and it was raised and brought to a conservation lab in North Charleston a decade ago.

Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the raising of the Hunley, discovered five years earlier by shipwreck hunter Clive Cussler.

As thousands watched from boats and the shoreline, the Hunley was brought from the depths and back to the lab by barge. Thousands turned out again in April 2004 when the crew was buried in what has been called the last Confederate funeral.During the past 15 years, about $22 million has been spent excavating and conserving the Hunley, according to Friends of Hunley, the nonprofit group that raises money for the project.

About $10.8 million came from the state and federal government, with the rest raised through donations and tour ticket and merchandise sales. About a half million people have seen the sub that sits in a tank of water at the conservation lab.An economic analysis earlier this year estimated the project has returned its investment many times over.

The study found that publicity from hundreds of news stories, a half dozen documentaries and a made-for-TV movie has generated at least $30 million in a state where tourism is an $18 billion industry.

"I have absolutely no misgivings," said state Sen. Glenn McConnell, the chairman of the South Carolina Hunley Commission. "The state is spending millions of dollars to get its message out to get people to visit here and the Hunley, in just one new historic revelation, makes history and makes news all over the world."U-Haul also has the picture of the Hunley on the side of 1,200 of its rental trucks that travel throughout the country, essentially free advertising that the company says would otherwise be worth $117 million.

Rotating the sub will allow scientists to, for the first time, completely examine the Hunley's hull.

It's a delicate operation, involving replacing the existing slings before the sub is turned upright. The pressure on the straps will be monitored electronically and a laser will monitor to make sure the surface doesn't get warped.The Hunley is "a ghost of an iron object," said senior conservator Paul Mardikian, adding it has "hundreds of different parts and everything has to move together."Putting it upright should provide clues to the sinking.Was it damaged by fire from the Houstonic or perhaps struck by a second Union ship coming to the aid of the blockade vessel? Were the Hunley sailors knocked out by the concussion of the explosion that sank the Housatonic?

The clues indicate the crew died of anoxia, a lack of oxygen which can overtake a person very quickly, and didn't drown. The remains showed they were at their crank stations and there was no rush for an escape hatch.McConnell concedes he didn't expect the project to take so long and thought it would have been in a museum by now."The Hunley is a very complex artifact and we decided we had only one chance to do it and that was to do it right," he said.

He estimates the Hunley could now be displayed in a museum by 2015. Conservation of such artifacts often takes years, underwater archeologists say. It was almost 30 years before the Swedish royal warship Vasa, which sank in 1628 in Stockholm Harbor and was raised in 1961, went on display in a permanent museum. Scientific reports on the Vasa are just coming out, said Lawrence Babits, director of the Program in Maritime Studies at East Carolina University. "The Hunley is iron and the iron isn't very thick and iron that has been in salt water is in a very nebulous state," he said. Putting it in shape where it can be displayed "does take time."

Frederick Hanselmann, a field archaeologist at the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M said the most painstaking part of conserving iron objects is removing the salts from years in sea water.

Conserving a ship cannon alone can take three to four years, he said. "For conservation it's not an unusually long time, especially considering they are conserving an entire submarine," said Mark Gordon, the president and chief executive officer of Odyssey Marine Exploration.

The company salvaged more than 50,000 coins and other artifacts from the wreck of the SS Republic off Savannah, Ga., in 2003 and while many of those coins are being displayed, some of the artifacts are still being conserved seven years later, Gordon said.

Hunley archaeologist Maria Jacobsen isn't surprised the cause of the sinking hasn't been found and expects a new series of questions and answers when the Hunley is rotated. "I do think with persistence and patience and a good deal of luck we will get there," she said. ____ Online: Friends of the Hunley: http://www.hunley.org/http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100806/ap_on_re_us/us_confederate_submarine

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Bid packages for those wishing to host the 2014 SCV Reunion are due by January 15, 2011. They should be sent to Chairman Joe Ringhoffer at 1211 Government St., Mobile, AL 36604 or e-mailed to ringhje@aol.com.

Bidders should include in their proposals the cost of guest rooms at the hotel(s), any parking fees, host hotel flag-display policy, meeting facility layout, projected registration cost and any other pertinent information. This information is needed in addition to the bidders’ plans for tours and events and information about attractions in the area. Preliminary bids shall also include a floor plan of the space ( hotel or convention center ) that the bidder intends to use. Bidders should indicate what room they intend to use for each main convention function ( business meetings, awards luncheon, banquet, ball, army meetings, True Confederate History Talks, vending area etc.. )

The guidelines for hosting a convention can be obtained from Chairman Joe Ringhoffer at the e-mail address above. The Convention Planning Committee can also provide information on the numbers of delegates that attended past conventions, how many persons attended various events at the convention and the number of hotel room nights booked at past conventions to assist bidders in preparing their bids.

The place and date of the meeting of the Convention Planning Committee, where bidders will make their formal presentations, will be announced after receipt of the preliminary bids. For more information, contact Chairman Ringhoffer at 251-402-7593.

The Due Date to submit proposed amendments to the SCV Constitution and Standing Orders for consideration at the 2011 Reunion in Montgomery, Alabama, (July 14-16, 2011), is February 10, 2011. They must be sent to Judge Advocate-in-Chief Burl McCoy and Executive Director Ben Sewell by this date.

Amendments can be submitted by e-mail or by US Mail. If sent by e-mail, the date stamp on the e-mail message must be on or before February 10, 2011. Amendments submitted by e-mail should be submitted in an MS Word file attached to the message. If submitted by US Mail, the postmark must be on or before February 10, 2011.

Please be sure to include your name, your camp name and number and your contact information on any amendment submitted. Those submitting amendments may also include a brief statement describing the reason the amendment is proposed. Executive Director Ben Sewell will confirm receipt of amendments submitted.

Please let me know if there are any questions regarding the submission of amendments.

ANDERSON — A line of Confederate soldier re-enactors stood in uniform and a single bagpipe skirled through the Anderson Civic Center. A huge Confederate flag faced the assemblage and many flags of the South’s past hung in the room where hundreds had gathered to honor their heritage.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans were beginning their national reunion.

The group, whose members are descendants of soldiers of the Confederacy, is in Anderson through Saturday at the Anderson Civic Center. It is the largest convention in Anderson County’s history.

Anderson Mayor Terence Roberts opened the reunion to a standing ovation when he presented a proclamation to Ron Wilson, commander of the Manse Jolly Camp No. 6 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the host of the convention.

In the proclamation, Roberts said “our country is a nation of people united by a common history of individual heritage, diverse cultures …” He said it was important to reflect on the nation’s history and gain insight from its mistakes and successes.

South Carolina’s Attorney General Henry McMaster said those who would besmirch the history and heritage of the South should be stopped.

“We need to understand the history in our state and what our heritage is and we need to be proud of it,” McMaster said. “Our ancestors stood tall believing in what they thought was right and they did so with great sacrifice.”

Chuck McMichael, the commander-in-chief of the national organization, said this year marks the 150th anniversary of those sacrifices.

“What must our ancestors have been talking about on their back porches, and after church?” he said. “They were talking about what was going on in their country, and the dismay in their hearts of the course the nation was in, the encroachment of the federal government of the rights that belonged to the states. … It was a storm and a change that they did not believe in.”

As the first state to secede, South Carolina holds a special place in the Confederacy, not only because of its secession, but also because it sent more men to the cause of the Confederacy, while not providing a single organized group to the Union.

McMichael said that as soon as Abraham Lincoln was elected president, a parish in Louisiana seceded from the Union and declared war on the North. South Carolina was to follow in December of 1860.

McMichael said an anti-secessionist attorney, James L Petigru, was reported to have said that “South Carolina is too small to be a republic and too large to be a lunatic asylum.”

“If that’s the case,” McMichael said. “Then for this weekend, I’m proud to be an inmate.”

There were also a number of short speeches by city and county officials including former Anderson County administrator Joey Preston, Anderson County Council members Ron Wilson, Tommy Dunn and Tom Allen, interim Anderson County administrator Rusty Burns and state Rep. Dan Cooper of Piedmont.